NASA Juno Spacecraft Finds Weird Pepperoni Storm Topping Jupiter Similar To Your Favorite Pizza [Watch]

NASA Juno spacecraft revealed a stunning video of a "pepperoni" storm circling Jupiter.

The space agency delivered the announcement just in time for National Pizza Day, further adding to our fascination with Jupiter storms.

NASA's official Instagram page features beautiful photographs of space daily.

NDTV said the space agency frequently gathers data from various telescopes and observatories to present us with mind-boggling images of galaxies and stars.

 First 3D View of Jupiter's Atmosphere Shows the Great Red Spot is Deeper Than Expected, NASA's Juno Reveals
First 3D View of Jupiter's Atmosphere Shows the Great Red Spot is Deeper Than Expected, NASA's Juno Reveals Pixabay/WikiImages

NASA Juno Spacecraft Shares Footage of Pepperoni Storm on Jupiter

According to an NDTV FOOD report, Jupiter's newest massive storm resembles pepperoni. It's a favorite pizza topping in the United States and other nations.

NASA shared a video of the pepperoni-like Jupiter storm on Instagram to highlight the storm's actual appearance.

"#NationalPizzaDay? How about Interplanetary Pizza Day? Our Juno mission saw "pepperoni" storms topping Jupiter," the space agency said in an Instagram post.

There's more to it than meets the eye, though. It isn't your typical photograph. According to reports, NASA uploaded an infrared picture of Jupiter's north pole and that was how the video's coloration was obtained.

NASA Explains Peperroni-Looking Storm on Giant Gas Planet

NASA has revealed why the newest Jupiter storm filmed looks like this. According to Republic World, the footage in the movie was from data acquired by NASA's Juno mission's Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) sensor.

NASA said the yellow patches are also warmer as they get further into Jupiter's atmosphere. On the other hand, the dark patches are cooler due to their location higher in Jupiter's atmosphere.

According to the space agency's caption, the "brightness temperature" measured in degrees Celsius is the radiation traveling from the top of the atmosphere towards Juno. The greatest is 260 degrees Celsius, and the lowest is roughly 190 degrees Celsius.

Storms on Jupiter

NASA said over a dozen prevailing winds sweep Jupiter, with some gusting to 539 kilometers per hour (335 miles per hour) near the equator. For more than 300 years, the giant planet has been home to the Great Red Spot, a churning circle of clouds twice the size of Earth. The Little Red Spot, which is roughly half the size of its larger relative, was formed lately when three smaller ovals joined.

The Juno probe's findings, announced in October 2021, present a complete picture of what's happening behind those clouds. Jupiter's cyclones are warmer on top, with lower atmospheric concentrations, than they are on the bottom, with greater densities, according to Juno data. Anticyclones are cooler at the top but warmer at the bottom because they rotate in the opposite direction.

These storms are also far taller than previously thought, some stretching 100 kilometers (60 miles) below the cloud tops and others, such as the Great Red Spot, span over 350 kilometers (200 miles). The unexpected finding shows that vortices extend beyond the areas where water condenses and clouds form, and beyond the depth where sunlight heats the atmosphere.

Check out more news and information on Space in Science Times.

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